


eyes that light, skin that scars

by Lint



Category: Riverdale (TV 2017)
Genre: F/F, Spoiler Speculation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-17
Updated: 2018-03-17
Packaged: 2019-04-01 11:47:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,273
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13997634
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lint/pseuds/Lint
Summary: How Toni seethes with the shame of promising she would not let anything happen to Cheryl, only to be helpless when she disappeared just two days later.





	eyes that light, skin that scars

**Author's Note:**

> Based on spoilers for 2x16, 2x17. Fair warning.

The sound of tapping against her window, has Toni groaning against the comfort of her pillow, as she shifts underneath the blanket but does not open her eyes. It comes again just seconds later. In a rhythm her sleep addled brain assumes is a bird. Anyone of the Serpents would have just waltzed right in, if they needed a place to crash for the night, all of them knowing better than to ever wake her up if it wasn't of the utmost importance.

 

When it happens a third time, she growls and pushes up onto her knees, ready to shoo away whatever breed of feathered pest it happens to be. Cheryl's sad eyes shine through the glass, leaving Toni to question whether she's really awake or not.

 

“Cheryl?” she questions aloud.

 

The girl doesn't move off the sound of her name initially, but nods when it's repeated.

 

“What are you-never mind. Go around to the door, I'll let you in.”

 

Cheryl starts to round the trailer, still having not said a word, and Toni moves off the bed and out of her room. The girl offers a small smile when Toni opens the door to let her in, stepping inside with a cursory look around. Honestly, Toni expects some kind of comment about her living situation, and is somewhat pleased when it doesn't come.

 

“This is what you wear to bed?” Cheryl asks, finally saying something, reaching down to pull at the hem of the extra large shirt Toni uses for pajamas.

 

It's then she realizes the complete lack of pants on her part, bare legs teased with the back of Cheryl's fingernails as she still plays with the material.

 

“We can't all wear silk lingerie to slumber in our bed chamber,” Toni tosses back with an amused grin.

 

No reaction on the redhead's part, as she finally drops her hand.

 

“I'm sorry to just show up like this,” she says with a sigh. “It's just that, well, I didn't really have anywhere else to go.”

 

Finally Toni notices the tears stained along her cheeks, almost impossible to see in the low light, but her hand lifts immediately to them.

 

“What's wrong?” she asks.

 

Toni is quick to rub away the fresh stream falling across her thumb, as Cheryl sobs softly, head dipping to Toni's shoulder.

 

“Hey,” Toni offers, arms wrapping around her waist. “Whatever it is, you can tell me.”

 

Cheryl nods against her. Even though they've only known each other a short time, and most of that was at odds, she can feel the honesty in the statement.

 

“I think Mommy wants to kill me,” she confesses.

 

“What?”

 

“She and my aptly named Uncle. God, I always thought my life was a tragedy, but fate seems determined to cast me in one of Shakespeare's.”

 

Toni is quick with a reassuring squeeze.

 

“I don't understand.”

 

“Hamlet you rube,” Cheryl shoots back. “The King is killed by his brother Claudius, who then marries the queen.”

 

Toni scoffs.

 

“That I got,” she replies. “What I don't understand, even though the woman is a terror, is why you think your mother actually wants to kill you.”

 

Cheryl is quiet a moment.

 

“I overhead them. Mommy thinks I never pay attention when adults are talking, but I always do. First things first, Mommy said. Nana, then me. They want to get their house in order. Now what does that sound like to you?”

 

Murder, Toni thinks but doesn't want to say.

 

“Sounds like something is rotten in the state of Blossom,” she says instead.

 

Cheryl manages a laugh, however broken it sounds, and Toni pulls back but holds onto her hand.

 

“You can stay with me,” she offers, though the question never came. “Though I have to warn you, it's no Four Seasons. Regular cotton twill sheets. My uncle's old clothes for sleepwear.”

 

“It's fine,” Cheryl is quick to agree.

 

“You can have my bed,” Toni proposes. “I'll take the couch.”

 

Cheryl looks at her, somehow seeming more vulnerable in the moment.

 

“Don't be silly,” she dismisses. “I don't mind sharing. I mean, that is if you don't.”

 

A smirk pulls at Toni's lips, as she tugs on Cheryl's hand and makes way back to her bedroom. Cheryl sits on the edge of the bed, so much smaller than the grandiose one back in her own room, as Toni goes into the chest where she keeps her clothes for something to let her borrow.

 

“Here,” she says, offering up another over sized shirt that almost matches the one she's wearing. “I know it's not-”

 

“It's fine,” Cheryl assures.

 

Toni turns her back politely as Cheryl begins to undress, something that clearly amuses the redhead, but she doesn't comment on it.

 

“Okay,” Cheryl says faintly when finished.

 

Toni turns around again, pulse jumping at the sight of the girl in one of her shirts, biting her lip to keep from saying something she'll regret. Instead she moves to lie down on the bed, grabbing Cheryl's wrist to take her along, shifting to face her when they both finally settle.

 

“Thank you,” Cheryl begins, looking like she might cry again, Toni's hand quick to her cheek once more. “I really-”

 

“It's no problem,” Toni cuts her off. “I mean it. And I know you've got a lot on your mind right now, but try to get some sleep, okay? I won't let anything happen to you.”

 

Cheryl's eyes widen. Like she simply has no idea how to react when someone is being genuine. When they offer help with no ulterior motive. When they want nothing from her other than what she's willing to give. She shifts closer, to press a whisper soft kiss against Toni's lips, as her arms quietly slip around the girl. Then, as she leans in for more, Toni pulls back.

 

“What?” Cheryl asks.

 

“Nothing,” Toni assures. “It's just, I don't think it's what you need right now.”

 

She moves so their foreheads gently press together.

 

“But I'll be right here when it is.”

 

/\

 

Toni hates the part that comes next.

 

Hates that it's part of her. That it's instinct.

 

Violence is never the answer. Never the solution. But in certain situations it just works more times than not.

 

Penelope Blossom lies flat on her back, gaping upward, with blood gushing from her nose stunned by what just occurred. It easy to see, with her state of confusion on how to deal with it, that she's never been hit in the face before. Toni stands over her, itching to do it again, knowing that the nefarious plot she planned for her daughter means she has it coming. How Toni seethes with the shame of promising she would not let anything happen to Cheryl, only to be helpless when she disappeared just two days later.

 

“Where is she?” Toni shouts.

 

Penelope wipes carelessly at her nose, appalled that it just keeps coming.

 

“Gone,” she manages to say. “Good riddance.”

 

The knife is pulled in anger, blade flicking out to the older woman's widening eyes, as if it's only in this moment does she realize the two-headed snake on the teenager's back isn't just for show. That it carries a weight she'd never think to burden herself with.

 

What stops Toni from lashing out, is not her own morality, but Veronica Lodge's hand catching her elbow. For a moment Toni had forgotten she was there. Josie too. Both girls recruited to help her find out what happened to Cheryl, because they're the only ones she could think of who might actually care.

 

“Tell us where she is,” Veronica warns sternly. “Or I let go.”

 

Penelope looks as if she's going to call their bluff, before looking at her hands, that familiar color of her family's obsession staring back.

 

“I was never going to kill her,” she offers drolly. “That girl. Such a drama queen.”

 

Toni's arm pulls forward, but Veronica hold firm.

 

“Wow,” she spits out. “So you're one rung from the bottom of the shitty parent ladder. Congratulations.”

 

Penelope merely glares at her.

 

“Is she really worth all of this?” she asks.

 

Toni and Veronica share a look, while Josie hums with disapproval from behind.

 

“She's your daughter,” Toni retaliates. “That you even have to ask-”

 

“Answer the question,” Josie chimes in. “Or you're gonna get cut.”

 

Penelope sighs.

 

/\

 

The whole convent is a goddamn dungeon.

 

The basement quite literally.

 

Josie stayed topside, combing through the main building of the compound, but instinct told Toni to go lower. Veronica come along, and now they're making their way through the bottom level with nothing but a flashlight to guide them. The silence is more disturbing than the darkness, and Toni has a hard time believing there is no one on the other side of the doors they pass.

 

They knock on a few but get no response. Neither girl knows whether that's good or bad.

 

“So,” Veronica starts, after the fourth door. “Are you and Cheryl... You know.”

 

Toni shines the light to the next one.

 

“Is this really the best place to have this conversation?” she asks, giving it a knock.

 

“Right,” Veronica replies. “Was doorway of their house, where you basically threatened to fillet Penelope Blossom, a better spot?”

 

Toni snickers.

 

“Point taken,” she gives. “I like her, yes. But it's not just about that.”

 

“Oh?”

 

Toni knocks on the fifth door and still nothing.

 

“I was her. I mean, I would have been. If it wasn't for the Serpents. Or my Uncle and Grandpa.”

 

Veronica doesn't ask her to elaborate, and Toni's glad, feeling she just might if requested.

 

“So you want to rescue her?” she asks instead, waving her hand around. “I mean other than the obvious with this place.”

 

Toni smirks.

 

“It's not always about the knight rescuing the princess,” she answers. “What's so wrong about seeing someone in pain and wanting to be there for them?”

 

“And if that turns into something more?”

 

“Then it does.”

 

They knock on all the doors and nothing.

 

“She's not here,” Toni states flatly.

 

Veronica reaches toward the flashlight and guides Toni's hand to a door in the middle of the far end wall.

 

“What about this one?”

 

“Probably just an exit,” Toni denies. “With the layout of the floor it has to be.”

 

“Okay,” Veronica accepts, still keeping the light on it. “But we came from the other side. So where does this go?”

 

Toni is quick to twist the knob, a little surprised when it actually turns, and blinks against the sunlight that comes flooding in. Veronica follows her out, when their eyes adjust, stepping into a fenced off area tucked in a back corner of the building.

 

A fresh set of doors greet them, from the various mounds and molehills they're attached to, both girls coming to the realization of what they are.

 

“Oh my god!” Veronica exclaims. “How bad to you have to be to get banished to your very own torture bunker?”

 

“As bad as your horror show of a mother says you are,” Toni fills in.

 

Cheryl is behind the third door they try, shivering on the cold damp ground, with knees pulled to her chest. She shies away when Toni crouches next to her, nearly screams when a placating hand is placed on her shoulder.

 

“It's me,” she offers softly. “Us, actually. Here to bust you out.”

 

Cheryl's head pops up, but her eyes haven't adjusted to the light, not quite able to see them clearly.

 

“Toni?” she asks.

 

“Yeah,” Toni assures. “Veronica and Josie, too.”

 

Cheryl locks eyes with Veronica, who gives a small wave, but looks confused at the lack of a third.

 

“She's in the main building,” Toni fills in. “Speaking of which, Veronica why don't you give her a call? Tell her we found our girl, and that we should probably get the hell out of here.”

 

Veronica pulls the phone from her purse, walking off a few step to make the call. Toni takes Cheryl's hand, pulling her up, and holding steady.

 

“You did all of this?” she asks. “For me?”

 

“Yeah,” Toni replies. “Guess I did.”

 

“Why?”

 

Toni presses a kiss against Cheryl's temple.

 

“Maybe I like you.”

 

/\

 

Cheryl sits on the edge of the bed, hands resting atop her legs, as Toni kneels behind her on the mattress combing out every knot in her freshly washed hair. Each movement slow and deliberate, Toni taking great pride in the goosebumps that rise on the the back of the girl's neck, whenever her knuckles brush the skin.

 

Once the hair seems perfectly streamlined, Toni moves around to Cheryl's side, grabbing for the ointment to rub along the sores on her wrists. The skin swollen and irritated from days manacled in chains before her banishment to the bunker. Cheryl sits silently through this treatment too, but Toni notes her lips twitch more than once, a smile not quite ready to present itself.

 

“I'm not going to ask,” Toni says, slowly rubbing. “But whenever you're ready to talk about what you went through, I'll be here to listen. Okay?”

 

Cheryl nods.

 

“And my bed is yours,” she continues. “As long as you need it.”

 

The statement makes Cheryl's head turn toward her, with a curious lift of her brow.

 

“I can't stay here forever,” she says.

 

“Maybe not,” Toni agrees. “But you don't have to figure anything out right this second.”

 

Cheryl thinks on that a moment.

 

“I suppose not,” she concedes.

 

Toni leans in and kisses her.

 

The smile finally pulls at Cheryl's lips.

 

“Is that what I need right now?” she teases.

 

“Yeah,” Toni says, going in for more. “I think it is.”

 

 

 


End file.
